Nail salon and the Ginominable snowman

The boys went to the hockey game tonight so the girls and Gram and I decided to have a girls night. After running to Walmart (a girl always has to run to walmart!), we went back home and made ice cream sundaes. Kaylee had vanilla with chocolate syrup and oreos and Avery had vanilla with chocolate syrup, sprinkles and m and m's. They thought those were the best sundaes ever. Then we got to work on our nail salon. The girls enjoy getting their nails painted but tonight we did the soak, the trim and the emory board.

After that Avery gave us all a lesson in school. She was the teacher and when asked how long she had been teaching she answered "five minutes." At least she's honest! She drew a picture and said it was a giant and then changed her mind and said it was the ginominable snowman. Needless to say we all end up laughing when she is the teacher.

We don't have too much going on tomorrow and then very early Sunday Keith is leaving for two weeks!

I love daughters!

My six year old daughter just unloaded the entire dishwasher......without being asked. I was so amazed that she knew where everything went. It is so nice to have someone to share household duties with even if she is only six. I can't believe I ever doubted her ability. I usually make her do the silverware and the bowls. She is really great at other things too. The fun thing is she enjoys doing chores!!!!!!! Man, I love daughters!

It's a Boy! It's a Girl!

Well the kids have been begging and Gram said yes. We now have two new little creatures in our house. Zack got a male guinea pig and Kaylee got a female hamster. Tiger and Lola are their names. They kids were so excited and even payed their own money for some of the necessities. Lola loves to run in her little wheel so much every night we have to move her into another room so the kids can sleep. It is so funny to watch! Zack's guinea pig is so calm he just holds it in his lap all the time. I can't wait to see how the kids do with the responsibility of taking care of them. I have told them they will be doing all the work. Avery was a little sad that she didn't get anything but the older kids have been really good at sharing.

Tomorrow we have a field trip to Phoenix to go to the science center. It should be a lot of fun and we have never been. We are also taking gram to hole in the rock. We are rapping up our unit study on Ben Franklin this week and will be doing our electricity experiment on Friday. The kids are so excited. I actually learned a lot about him that I didn't remember. That is why I love homeschooling so much. I get to learn everyday too!

Hole in the Rock

We had a great time on Friday. Keith got to take a day off work and we went to Phoenix to take some stuff to the thrift store and do our commissary shopping. After we did those things we went to do our first hike/mountain climb. The kids were so excited and we could hardly get Zack to wait for us! Now this is a real beginner hike and when you go around the backside there is stairs to get up. Once you get to this "hole " in the rock you get a gorgeous view. Well the older kids (and Keith) decided that they wanted to climb higher. Now this part is just rock climbing! I was a little on edge but they did great and had a great time. We already have plans to go back.

Today we went swimming at the Y again. This is so fun to be able to enjoy swimming together and it is also nice because it wears everyone out and so they sleep well!

On another note I finally found Kaylee a girl scout troop to join and we are going this month.

Tomorrow Gram finally gets here for her visit. The kids are anxiously awaiting her arrival so they can open the last of their gifts under the tree. I can't wait to finally take the tree down!

Back to the grind

Well grandpa and grandma have gone home. We had a great visit and did lots of fun things! The kids were so excited to see some familiar faces and also some more Christmas gifts to open. Kaylee played a lot of barbies and games and Avery did many dance recitals for them. Zack liked playing outside with them and showing them around. We went to a place called Out Of Africa which was so much fun. They got to hold a skink and a lizard so that was a highlight. The kids enjoyed the tiger show and feeding the animals. I think the highlight was the talking birds at the end. They were a hoot! The kids thought it was so funny that they could say words! We even went to Sedona for a day and it was so beautiful! The kids want to go back so we can go exploring. On the way we also went through a town that is a mining ghost town so we are going to go back there also.

Today was back to school and with just a few groans (from Zack) we got it done and even did some painting of portraits. This week we are going to start on a lapbook of Bejamin Franklin since Zack is so interested in inventions. He has so many dreams it is such a blessing to be a part of that and even to help him explore his dreams. If he was in public school he might not have the time to dream so big!

We are also getting our house ready for our next visitor! Gram will be flying in on Sunday and the kids can hardly wait. We even had to leave our tree up so we could open presents with her! She will be staying for three weeks while daddy goes for training. We will be doing some fun things with her as well!

Tomorrow is another school day but we are also going to the library and going swimming at the YMCA. We will have a great day!